Last updated July 8, 2019 at 8:42 am
The Night King might have been killed off in Game of Thrones, but his legacy continues to live on as a newly named bee fly.
The Night King is real. At least in Australia. Credit: CSIRO
Remember the leader of the White Walkers who killed much-loved characters and caused a whole lot of heartbreak across the world?
Well, PhD student and hardcore Game of Thrones fan, Xuankun Li, decided to name a new species of bee fly after him.
The bee fly, Paramonovius nightking, was named after the Night King because it reigns in winter and has a crown of spine-like hairs. However, unlike the Night King from GoT, this bee fly is harmless.
Naming species is the most fun a taxonomist can have
It is one of 230 new species named by Australia’s CSIRO during the past year.
Bryan Lessard, an entomologist at CSIRO’s National Research Collections Australia says “inspiration for new species names can come from anywhere”.
“It has a serious side, but naming new species is the most fun a taxonomist can have,” he says.
The newly named species range from a cusk eel (Barathronus algrahami) to a tiny soldier fly (Prosopochrysa lemannae).
Staff of the Australian National Herbarium also named six new plants species, including two daisies, two orchids, a lobelia and a trumpet vine.
The Australian Faunal Directory is an online catalogue of taxonomic and biological information on all animal species known to occur within Australia and its territories.
Taxonomy Australia maintains a running count of new Australian species named each year on a dashboard.
